International Migration for Work-Consequences for the Families Who Remain at Home (The Case of Romania)

This paper analyses the consequences of international migration for work on families who remain at home in a Romanian rural sample. Five types of effects were identified: financial; on spousal relations; on children; on old family members and on composition of the population. The most important are the financial impacts, but there are also invisible side-effects, such as deterioration in the relations between spouses and the decrease of the parents?? roles for children. The importance of the old family members is re-evaluated; they are key social links between migrants and the family members that have remained at home.